Most companies launch too broad. They define a large addressable market, build a comprehensive product, and hope to capture 1% of it. The Entry Point Wedge does the opposite. Start narrow. Win there. Expand from strength.
The Entry Point Wedge is a market entry framework built on one observation: the most expensive thing in business is creating demand from scratch. Changing behavior costs a fortune. Redirecting existing behavior costs almost nothing.
The wedge starts with a question. Where are people already spending time, money, or attention in the direction you want to go? Not where you wish they were spending it. Where they actually are right now.
You find the narrowest segment where that behavior exists, build a product or service that serves that behavior better than anyone else, and dominate the wedge before expanding.
The logic behind the wedge comes from disruption theory and behavioral economics. Clayton Christensen showed that new entrants win by serving a segment that incumbents ignore or underserve. Rory Sutherland showed that the most powerful marketing doesn't change what people want; it reframes what they already want.
The wedge combines both insights. You don't try to change behavior. You find behavior that's already shifting and position yourself at the intersection before it's obvious.
Three things make the wedge work:
Existing behavior. The people in your wedge are already doing something adjacent to what you're offering. You don't have to convince them to care about the category. They already care. You just have to convince them you're the best option.
Low competition. Because the wedge is narrow, incumbents don't see it as a threat. They're optimized for the broader market. Your wedge sits in their blind spot.
Signal density. When you serve a narrow segment well, the feedback loop is tight. You learn faster. You iterate faster. You build conviction about what works before you spend real money scaling.
The Entry Point Wedge tells you where to play. The Entry Point Consumer tells you who to serve first.
Most companies build customer personas based on who they want to buy from them. The Entry Point Consumer flips this. You identify the person who is already behaving in a way that makes them a near-certain early adopter. They don't need to be educated. They don't need to be convinced the category matters. They're already there.
The Entry Point Consumer has three characteristics: they convert with low friction, they talk about products they love, and their behavior reveals where the broader market is heading. They're your proof of concept, your marketing engine, and your market research rolled into one person.
They confuse niche with wedge. A niche is a destination. A wedge is a starting point. If you plan to stay in your niche forever, it's a niche. If you plan to use it as a platform for expansion, it's a wedge. The strategy is different.
They pick a wedge based on what they can build, not where behavior exists. The wedge has to be grounded in reality. If you have to create demand, you've picked the wrong wedge.
They expand too early. The wedge only works if you actually dominate it. If you move to adjacent segments before you've won the first one, you're just launching broad with extra steps.
They over-invest in the wedge product. The wedge is an entry point, not the final product. Build enough to win the wedge. The expanded product comes later, informed by what you learn from the Entry Point Consumer.
The best strategic work starts with a conversation about where behavior already exists.
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